WARREN — With the calendar closing in on the holiday season, the Alleman family lost their home and many of their belongings in a house fire Dec. 1 on Arsenal, near 12 Mile and Van Dyke. Warren Fire Commissioner ...Read More

Police are asking for the public’s assistance in locating a man who went missing recently.Frinnie Williamson, 49, of Southfield, is missing, according to a news release from Lt. Ted Goff, of the Southfield Police ...Read More

CLINTON TOWNSHIP — Clinton Township Clintondale boys basketball coach Rob Townsend makes it clear that he sees where his team could be at a disadvantage this season.“We have no size,” Townsend said. ...Read More

ROCHESTER — At the annual Rochester Adams coaches meeting, Jason Rapp had a very important announcement.The athletic director of the Highlanders was pleased to reveal that Al Must had won the title of Coach of the ...Read More

MACOMB TOWNSHIP — A new bench that sits on the playground of Cheyenne Elementary School is the product of a Dakota High School sophomore who recently earned Eagle Scout status.Alec DeMaria recently earned the ...Read More

TROY — Carole Halbrook, 74, of Sterling Heights, never thought she would find love again after she lost her husband, Albert Person, her high school sweetheart and childhood neighbor, who died suddenly during routine ...Read More

Login

Contest winner earns a place at the firehouse dinner table

By Cortney Casey

Posted November 14, 2012

» click to enlarge «

Cheeseburgers whipped up by firefighter/paramedic Ryan Glick are a cause for glee from Aaliyah McGee, 6, who won a dinner at Fire Station No. 2 after winning the Sterling Heights Fire Department’s open house coloring contest. (Photo by Donna Agusti)

Cheeseburgers whipped up by firefighter/paramedic Ryan Glick are a cause for glee from Aaliyah McGee, 6, who won a dinner at Fire Station No. 2 after winning the Sterling Heights Fire Department’s open house coloring contest. (Photo by Donna Agusti)

Ryan Glick is accustomed to whipping up dinner for his battalion at Sterling Heights’ Fire Station No. 2, but on Nov. 1, the firefighter/ paramedic had a special order to prepare.

“The young lady requested cheeseburgers,” he announced, shuffling pans of French fries and tater tots in the oven.

The “young lady” receiving a dinner at the firehouse was 6-year-old Aaliyah McGee, the grand prize winner in a coloring contest held during the Fire Department’s Oct. 14 open house.

Stephanie Dickerson said her daughter, a first-grader at Jack Harvey Elementary, spent four hours coloring the image of a firefighter in full turnout gear to ensure perfection.

“It was a big to-do at our house,” laughed Dickerson.

For her reward, McGee received transport to and from Fire Station No. 2 aboard a fire engine — which was “bumpy,” she declared with a smile — plus dinner with the firefighters on duty and interim Fire Chief Chris Martin.

Martin joked that he asked McGee what her favorite meal was, at the risk of it being something elaborate that the firefighters would have to be persuaded to make. But for Glick, who’s become the station’s default cook over the years, cheeseburgers were a cinch.

Glick didn’t just grill up patties and slap them on a bun; he went all out, laying out a buffet that included multiple types of cheese and buns, onions, bacon, lettuce and other trimmings. As sides, he served up two types of French fries, tater tots, cole slaw and baked beans, plus brownies and pineapple upside-down cake for dessert.

Perched at the head of the station’s long dining table, McGee shyly nibbled at a piece of bacon and gave a toothy grin as the firefighters tried to coax her into conversation.

“You know how hard it is to get dinner with the chief?” one joked. “Ask his wife and son.”

The Fire Department has donated dinner with the firefighters in the past as a prize for charity events, but this is the first time they’ve given it out in conjunction with a coloring contest, said Martin.